Literary Glutton

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Sat, 18 May 2013 20:00:44 -0400

thosewerethe90s: callmekaters: WISHBONE WAS SO LEGIT. you...

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:15:46 -0400

thosewerethe90s:

callmekaters:

WISHBONE WAS SO LEGIT.

you know it

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Sat, 18 May 2013 17:00:42 -0400

xtremecaffeine: devotchkax: handsomephillip: thisgingerisback:...

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:21:09 -0400

xtremecaffeine:

devotchkax:

handsomephillip:

thisgingerisback:

sugaredvenom:

annijade:

sugaredvenom:

Just thought I’d share this charming piece of graffiti from near my home.

By the way, this is the ONLY women’s library in the country, it has only women’s work in it and also serves as a sort of feminist museum. They’re affiliated with a university close by and hold regular events such as workshops and talks on subjects like the poetry of immigrant women of colour or the representation of mental health in women’s literature. Its also due to be closed down by the Conservatives.

Can men go in and borrow books written by women?

Yeah, totally, they even do events for men by women on intro to feminism, rape culture stuff sometimes!

god forbid women have a single fucking thing without men getting jealous like fucking children

Ugh

I’m currently getting involved with womens library in my area. This has really annoyed me, the person who wrote this stupid statement obviously doesn’t understand the reasons why we need women only spaces. “Men like Books too”, go to any other library, there’s probably about 1,000 normal librarys for every women’s library, in the whole of Scotland, there is only the Glasgow Women’s Library. What a pathetic statement to make.

Mens Rights Activism in the community guys.

Also seriously everyone Glasgow Women’s Library.

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Fri, 17 May 2013 20:00:35 -0400

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Fri, 17 May 2013 17:00:45 -0400

“I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:26:00 -0400

“I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books.”

Happy 73rd birthday to Gary Paulsen!

did-you-kno: Source

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:33:52 -0400

did-you-kno:

Source

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Thu, 16 May 2013 20:00:52 -0400

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Thu, 16 May 2013 17:00:41 -0400

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Wed, 15 May 2013 20:00:53 -0400

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Wed, 15 May 2013 17:00:50 -0400

buzzfeed: The books that will move you, inspire you, make you...

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:15:46 -0400

buzzfeed:

The books that will move you, inspire you, make you cry, make you think, make you laugh. Are there any books that you would add?

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Tue, 14 May 2013 20:00:36 -0400

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Tue, 14 May 2013 17:00:49 -0400

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Mon, 13 May 2013 20:00:39 -0400

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Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:38 -0400

Was Gatsby Great? The Great Gatsby Part 2: Crash Course English...

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:29:41 -0400

Was Gatsby Great? The Great Gatsby Part 2: Crash Course English Literature

“Nothing was made whole by the tragedy of the Great Gatsby. I think that’s why some readers find the novel to be depressing and hopeless, even amid all the lush language and witty turns of phrase. But I don’t think it is hopeless. Remember that line from the first chapter? ‘Gatsby turned out all right in the end, it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams….’ As individuals, and as a collective, the tragedy isn’t in dreaming; It’s in chasing an unworthy dream. So in the end, is Gatsby great?”

you were not absent from our loneliness: Jay Gatsby was black: an explanation

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:13:38 -0400

you were not absent from our loneliness: Jay Gatsby was black: an explanation:

stevebuscreaming:

So let me explain this theory for those of you who haven’t heard it before already.

The Great Gatsby is a story of a man that makes his fortune bootlegging and throws countless magnificent parties all in hopes of attracting the attention of his old flame Daisy.

But it’s really a story about insurmountable class barriers. Daisy will never be with Gatsby, no matter how much she claims to love him. No matter how hard Gatsby tries, he will always be stuck on West Egg, only able to admire the ‘green light’ of upper class american romanticism from afar.

Themes of insurmountable class barriers permeate the entire novel right from some of the famous opening lines:

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

And so here’s the theory:

Jay Gatsby was black, passing for white (“High yellow”)

Lower class vs upper class. Old money vs new money. East Egg vs West Egg. White vs black. Don’t believe me?

Early in the novel, Daisy’s beau Tom goes on a full fledged rant about the oncoming threat of the rise of the black race in society

Another reference to race is made when Nick and Gatsby pass by a limo driven by a white chauffeur with “three modish negroes”

Numerous references are made to Gatsby’s notably dark skintone in comparison to Daisy’s lighter skintone

“I would have accepted without question the information that Gatsby sprang from the swamps of Louisiana or from the lower East Side of New York. That was comprehensible. But young men didn’t— at least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn’t— drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound.”

Not only was the insurmountable barrier between him and Daisy one of class and upbringing, but also one of race.

What we take for granted as Gatsby’s whiteness is actually a omission of detail rather than a specific indicator that he was white.

From the article Was Gatsby Black?

Thompson adds, “When I ask people what basis there is for Gatsby being white, I get silence. I have asked students, colleagues. They don’t know. They cannot give me any evidence to back up the speculation. And why haven’t people made this argument so far?”

Of course as with any theory or reading of a classic text, there’s room for disagreement:

Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli has one answer. “Because it’s mishigas! If Fitzgerald wanted to write about blacks, it wouldn’t have taken 75 years to figure it out. If that’s what Fitzgerald wanted, he would have made it perfectly clear in April 1925. Great works of literature are not fodder for guessing games. This kind of thing is bad for literature, bad for Fitzgerald, bad for ‘The Great Gatsby’ and bad for students who get exposed to this kind of guessing game.”

But why shouldn’t we play a guessing game with it? We don’t have Fitzgerald around to verify any of these details so why not have a bit of fun with the text? It’s a very modern reading of the text and it makes it not only more relatable but more heartbreaking.

Everyone has their own reasons why they can’t be with their own Daisy.

Why shouldn’t Gatsby be black? And why can’t he really be with Daisy?

In this discussion about whether or not Beethoven was black, the point is made:

Another tight question along these lines: Was Jay Gatsby black? Again, it’s probably not literally the case (as Fitzgerald intended it) –- but what’s much more interesting is everyone’s utter inability to take it seriously as a legitimate reading of the text, which it is.

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Sun, 12 May 2013 20:01:02 -0400